Matt is a talented artist. One day he meets Elizabeth, a successful and independent-minded businesswoman. They begin an affair, in the course of which Matt finds that Elizabeth has strong submissive tendencies, but refuses to be bound by conventional notions of monogamy. He himself is untutored in the ways of D/s, but with Elizabeth’s active encouragement he soon discovers his dominant side. Together they explore the full range of D/s experiences: bondage, humiliation, the pleasure and pain of nipple-clamps or whipping, forced orgasms, anal and oral sex on command. Elizabeth agrees to submit to a strict regime of sexual conduct, with Matt dictating what clothes she should wear (he has very firm views about underwear), and how often she may come. He makes her perform a variety of domestic chores under threat of severe punishment if her work is unsatisfactory.

Elizabeth’s independent nature makes her rebel against the more humiliating tasks, but Matt now has the bit between his teeth and enforces strict discipline. He also discovers that he gains pleasure from offering Elizabeth to other men; threesomes and foursomes soon follow. Elizabeth takes Matt to visit her former Dom, Jonathan, who has a new submissive, Daisy. The two men avail themselves of both girls in a night of extravagant sexual indulgence, in which Elizabeth is forced to submit to Daisy as well as to the two men. Finally, now that she is firmly “under his thumb” Matt marks Elizabeth’s successful attainment of full submission by decorating her body and having her pose naked as a living artwork for his guests at a celebration party.